Southeast Asian American Studies: Studying the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian Diaspora  

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These websites offer examples of the most frequently cited types of materials, such as journal articles, books, and online resources. 

The full texts of the MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, and other style manuals are available in paper in Langson Library.

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By the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, countless immigrants and refugees left Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to begin new lives elsewhere, and more would continue to emigrate.  Many settled in the United States, with the largest community of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam establishing itself in Orange County.  Southeast Asian American Studies--a part of the larger, equally interdisciplinary field of Asian American Studies--examines the experiences of the individuals and groups who built new communities, established businesses, attended school, pursued jobs and careers, wrote memoirs and other literary works, documented their own histories in text and film, formed organizations and places of worship, and became politically active. 

Researching the Southeast Asian diaspora can begin with the collections amassed by the Southeast Asian Archive, which includes circulating and non-circulating materials, but many of the Libraries' other resources, including databases, will also provide valuable information, such as journal articles, government reports, statistics, and dissertations.

Southeast Asian American Studies topics are often pursued by students and researchers based in well-established departments, such as Anthropology; Sociology; Literature; Psychology; Public Health; Education; Women's Studies; Criminology, Law & Society; Planning, Policy & Design; Drama; and Political Science.   There are UCI Subject Guides for each of these that provide dozens of resources not listed in this guide. 

The strength of the UCI collections for studying the Southeast Asian diaspora is the journey to and experience in America.  Researchers studying the expatriate communities in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere will also find materials in the UCI collections for their research.

I welcome your ideas for improving this guide, including recommending specific sources that should be included.  Please email me at cjwoo@uci.edu.  Thanks!

  - Christina J. Woo, Research Librarian for the Southeast Asian Archive